1000 Gifts, Vol. 2, #26

251. the sound of leaves crunching underfoot
252. nighttime view of Tokyo Bay, Rainbow Bridge and downtown from a 51st floor apartment
253. a filling bowl of Louisiana red bean soup eaten between trains in Shinagawa station
254. being invited to see an almost-9-year-old's Lego trains
255. a 2-year-old growing up in a trilingual family using gestures and all three languages plus her own made-up words to communicate what games she wanted to play
256. the marvelous Tokyo train & subway system
257. frozen pizza dough leftover from when I made double
258. shadows flickering on the wall in the candlelight
259. pizza with crunchy bacon on top
260. the sense of accomplishment that comes from finally solving The Times of London's fiendish sudoku puzzle

Much we need Thy tender care

A mouse did not take a bite out of this copy of "Savior, Like a Shepherd Lead Us." The votive candle pictured above burnt that much of it before His tender care connected the synapses in my brain so that I realized what the black things on the table were and that the smell was not that of a nice autumn wood fire wafting in the open window.

Aleutian Weather & Italian Lessons

My "new" car has a fancy audio system, I was told. Come to find out, it plays MDs and the radio. Perhaps the speakers are what are fancy; I would not notice.

After dealing with my disappointment that it does not play CDs (or even cassettes, as one might think an old car would), I have turned to the radio to provide my listening pleasure as I drive. I have found that NHK public radio is the best, because the pronunciation is clear and there are lots of interesting talk shows, so it's good language practice. (That's how I learned the word "pirate" - by listening to an NHK radio commentary on pirated DVDs in southeast Asia.)

Yesterday driving home from English class, I learned how to converse with the clerk while shoe shopping in Italy. Next time you're bored, try learning Italian with instruction in Japanese. :-)

This morning I thought I'd hear the traffic update or some such information. Well, it *was* information. But not about traffic on the highways in Tokyo. It was information for the traffic on the seas, informing fishermen and sea captains of the weather conditions... as far away as the ocean south of the Aleutians-! Lots of numbers were involved, as in, "At 160* longitude and 40* latitude ... 994 hectopascals..." After covering what seemed like the entire northern Pacific, the announcer said, "Repeating..." and began again.

They say that repetition is the key to learning. This car may be the best thing ever for improving my Japanese language ability.

Read your Bible, pray every day...

Maybe you sang that catchy chorus as a child.

Tonight after sitting quietly during family devotions in Dutch, I sat alone in the living room watching* the lights of Tokyo and listening to the background music. First I heard three voices coming from one boy's room, singing "He came from heaven to earth..." in Dutch, and then from a little girl's room, "Read your Bible, pray every day..." in Dutch. In a 980 square foot apartment, it's as if you're all in the same room-!

*note to English teachers on my choice of the verb "watching" as opposed to "looking at" - the lights were moving -- bright, bold neon displays with moving messages & pictures, lights of boats in the bay, lights of the bullet train slowing down as it approached Tokyo station, lights of cars on the expressway, and the lights of Rainbow Bridge changing continually.

My day after 6 PM

• multi-tasking on little sleep and without benefit of exercise
• coordinating by e-mail a meeting I won't be attending
• painstakingly writing an e-mail in Japanese to a respected pastor
• thinking about our legal affairs
• applying for publishing rights
• translating a vision-casting letter to help with fund-raising for a translation project
• pondering my to-do list of 5 non-routine projects which I don't see fitting in to the 24 hours I have each day over the next week
  
• feeling the weight of relationships I've neglected (as evidenced by the letters from friends asking, "Will you please write me or visit?")

And then ... talking with a friend who held a mirror up to my life and helped me see the reality of the many GOOD things.

Improved perspective ... remembering what is foundationally true and will not change ... a reminder to take care of the basics - regular sleep, healthy food, exercise ... an objective person speaking into my life with truth and grace.

I went to bed VERY encouraged ... and slept WELL.

Smelling the Equinox

Tuesday September 23rd was a national holiday: Autumn Equinox.

I was out of town for the long weekend, visiting my cousins. Tuesday morning we went from their home to their son's school, over an hour away. Tuesday afternoon, I set out to come home, leaving from the train station nearest his school.

Just before heading to the station, I remembered there is a Christian bookstore near that station, so I asked directions, and then, pulling my suitcase behind me, I walked from the school to the station, up the escalator, through the station, down the stairs on the other side, and proceeded down the road, past the city hall and the department store, dripping with sweat the entire time. The verbal directions a school staffer had given indicated to turn left at the light after the department store, walk for a long time until I came to a small cemetery, and then turn left again.

Immediately after turning left at the light after the department store, my nostrils began to be filled with an almost overpowering smell of incense. At least I knew I was on the right road ... headed to the cemetery.

Autumn Equinox is a time to visit graves, offer incense to the ancestors and pray.

The irony was not lost on me as I turned, and walked the length of the not-so-small cemetery's cement block fence, until I reached the very-small outpost of the Christian Literature Crusade.

The message they are here to distribute is too late for the people whose bones are buried in the cemetery next door and who were worshiped on the Autumn Equinox. But for the living ... those who offered the incense and prayed to their ancestors ... it is not too late to come to know the One who did not stay in the grave, who is the Resurrection and the Life.

She's all grown up!

In my box of photos is a picture taken one brilliant fall day 19 years ago when I stayed home with three little children while their parents attended a wedding in Tokyo.

Last Saturday I stayed home in Japan while many of my friends attended the wedding in Virginia of the youngest of those three little children.

19 years ago, she was a preschooler, eager to "do school" like her big brother and sister. I was a teacher, eager to find ways to keep her occupied so that the rest of us could do school. On non-school days we went to the zoo and aquarium together, on church picnics and to the park on Sunday afternoons for "park evangelism".

13 years ago, she was an elementary student, dressed in her finest to play in a piano recital with her sister. In the summer, we picnicked on the shores of Nojiri Lake.

Six years ago, she was recently returned to Japan from a vibrant youth group in the States. We met weekly, sometimes at a park, sometimes at a coffee shop, to read through a book, pray together, and spur one another on to love and good deeds.

Five years ago, she was one of my high-school students. We enjoyed learning together as we conquered the rigorous curriculum.

Three years ago, she was a college student, generously bringing me the best sushi in the Shenandoah Valley, when I drove through.

Today, she is a young bride, and I eagerly await the pictures, but more than that, our next reunion, meeting her groom, and learning what God is continuing to do in her life.

Olive Garden

I ate dinner at Olive Garden Wednesday night. Well, it's not really Olive Garden, as in the chain restaurant in the U.S.A., but it is オーリブ畑, which translates, "Olive Garden." A small mom-and-pop restaurant with a good reputation in our town, it probably has eight tables. The "pop" was sitting at the center table checking e-mail on his cell phone when we walked up to the door, but quickly served us our delicious meal of kinoko & eggplant with Japanese-style cream sauce spaghetti and salad.

I had arrived at my friend's apartment around 6 for our monthly dinner. Since she had just walked in the door, later than planned, we decided to go out for dinner. Choosing a restaurant is not my forte, so I was glad when she had an immediate suggestion.

Given the lack of road signs or names, her suggestion was worded something like this. "Do you know that little restaurant on the walking path sort of near Oyumino Chapel?" "Yes! Olive Garden."

Olive Garden's day off is Monday, which is also my friend's day off, so she had never been. And I had not been in years.

1000 Gifts, Vol. 2, #25

241. taking a shortcut through the industrial park, yellow leaves on the trees lining the road, viewed against the backdrop of a pale blue sky
242. Japanese pampas grass standing tall with their heads bowed slightly and swaying in the breeze
243. Bartlett pears at a reasonable price in my local grocery store
244. eating fresh figs for the first time in my life
245. my first mikan (mandarin orange) of the season
246. the settledness that comes from having the dedicated use of one car for the next few months
247. counteracting two days of snacking with a spontaneous late-night salad bar visit to Big Boy with a friend
248. akibare (a clear, fall day)
249. time to rest
250. time to work

Branching Out

My daily fruit consumption throughout the year is based on apples, and then in fall and winter rotates through nashi (Asian pears), kaki (Asian persimmons), and mikan (mandarin oranges), before beginning the long wait until fall fruits are in season again. Sometimes toward the end of summer, when delicious fruits are out of my price range, even the apples go above my $1 per piece limit, and I must resort to eating bananas (my least favorite fruit).

Yesterday as I walked through the produce section of our local grocery store, I couldn't believe my eyes! I came home with a bag of early mikan, a container of four Bartlett pears, and a container of fresh figs, the latter two of which I had never purchased in Japan. I had never eaten a fresh fig until yesterday!

Does anyone know a simple recipe for making fig preserves?

Wanting to be cut off

“To cut off the sinner from all reliance upon himself, his merits and his powers; and throw him, naked and helpless, into the hands of the Holy Spirit to lead him to Christ in faith; should be the one great aim of the ministry.”

- Ichabod S. Spencer

For daily quotes, go to: http://firstimportance.org/

Susannah Wesley speaks

When young John Wesley asked his mother, "Mother, can you give me a definition of sin?" she replied:

Whatever weakens your reasoning, impairs the tenderness of your conscience, obscures your sense of God, or takes away your relish for spiritual things-- in short if anything increases the authority and the power of the flesh over the spirit, that to you becomes sin, however good it is in itself.

(HT: Ravi Zacharias podcast)

Re-entry book list

Re-entry: making the transition from missions to life at home, Jordan

The Re-entry Team: Caring for your returning missionaries, Pirolo

The Art of Coming Home, Storti

Serving as Senders, Pirolo

Overcoming Missionary Stress, Foyle

Honourably Wounded: Stress among Christian workers, Foyle

Coming Home, Lisech
described as:

a "must have" devotional guide for anyone coming home from short-term or long-term mission service as they encounter the issues of reentry stress.

online resources for re-entry

What Missionaries Ought to Know about Re-entry (brochure)

1000 Gifts, Vol. 2, #24

231. the reflection of the wooded hills on the still surface of a mountain lake
232. a gurgling stream rushing down the mountain
233. a carpet of red higanbana (spider lily)
234. a field of bright cosmos
235. a child requesting me to tell a story of when I was young
236. the smell of the forest after the rain
237. a picnic in the mountains
238. the cool mountain breeze
239. listening to a child's reading practice ... hiragana reading practice
240. getting to practice my latent homeschool gene as we worked on reading comprehension

1000 Gifts, Vol. 2, #23

221. a pastor passing on his old car to me
222. his son taking time to explain to me several ways I can save gas
223. an unexpected dinner out with a lady in the church, when her husband was on a business trip
224. rolling suitcase!
225. train schedule website
226. looking forward to a long weekend
227. meeting up with friends at the local food court for a quick meal between events
228. the honest questions of a 3-year old
229. a lady's eager return to Bible study after more than a year's absence
230. a cup of good strong tea

Going Green

Going green is not something that one has to consciously choose to do in Japan. Often, it's just the way it is.

I don't have a pet, but I keep plenty of PET (plastic drink) bottles in my hall closet ... at least until I remember to take them with me to the grocery store.

I don't have a dryer, but I have at least two options for drying my clothes: hanging them on my veranda (right) or, in rainy season or pollen season, hanging them in my shower room (left) with either the exhaust fan on or the dehumidifier turned on.

Other ways Japan goes green:

• "Cool-biz" - men don't have to wear suit jackets or ties in summer
• many offices keep the air conditioning set at the government - recommended temperature of 82.4*F
• in winter many offices keep the heat set at the government - recommended temperature of 68*F
• many stores have incentive programs to encourage shoppers to carry "my bag".
  

Unclean lips

As I rode with N through the streets of downtown Chiba (pop. 1 million) each Tuesday in '96-'97, we often listened to a certain cassette, on our way to the church where I had a full schedule of English classes and she was on staff.

The cassette included a song that we sometimes sang in the young adults' group.

"Watashitachi no kono kuchi ha" or "Our lips are unclean," set to a catchy tune, is a prayer asking God to purify our lips and fill them with praise that His great name may be praised in earth as it is in heaven. N told me how some of her friends at Bible college wrote songs and then recorded this cassette.

Five years later when I attended the "Japan Urbana" missions conference, the singing group "Lyre" gave a concert after the closing session. It was the same group I had heard on the cassette in N's car! Taken by their harmony, their sincere faith, and their joy in knowing the Lord, I became a fan and bought two of their CDs.

This month they are holding a series of 15th anniversary concerts. With one of the six members on furlough from Brazil and another preparing to leave for Cambodia, they don't anticipate any concerts in the next three years.

Last night, I sat in the gorgeous chapel at their alma mater and listened to their harmonious voices raised in praise to the Lord. At the end of the two hour concert, when called back in for an encore, they asked us all to rise and join them in singing their signature song, "Watashitachi no kono kuchi ha."

You can watch one of their concerts by going here, scrolling down, and clicking one of the 2 buttons on the left, (WMP or Real Player Audio). The song, "Watashitachi no kono kuchi ha" starts at 4:20 on the video, although the audience is singing along, so it's not that great.

I am a man of unclean lips, and I dwell in the midst of a people of unclean lips; for my eyes have seen the King, the LORD of hosts! Then one of the seraphim flew to me, having in his hand a burning coal that he had taken with tongs from the altar. And he touched my mouth and said: "Behold, this has touched your lips; your guilt is taken away, and your sin atoned for."

B-b-b-b. a-a-a-a. Ba-ba-ba-ba. T-t-t-t. Ba-t. Ba-t. BAT!!!

Sitting next to a child as they learn to read (or listening on the phone half a world away) is always a thrilling experience. Just think of the worlds that are about to open up to them. Trying to imagine my life without the ability to read is a very sad exercise.

Today I clicked on a link and ended up on a Spanish blog.

Two years of high school Spanish do not a fluent Spanish speaker make.

But I could read it! I could understand some things, like this title which I'm pretty sure I understand 100%.

Diferencias entre un Matrimonio Cristiano y un Matrimonio Secular

Compare the above Spanish topic with the top headline on the Daily Yomiuri's website this morning:

「麻生総裁」確実に、３００票超の公算…読売調査

Do you even have a clue what the article is about? Without using my cheat sheet (aka Rikai.com), I could tell you that it's something about the politician Aso, and something that is for sure, and that something is over 300, according to a survey by the Yomiuri. My ability to read that headline is actually misleading, because I normally can't tell that much.

With the help of my cheat sheet website, I deciphered that according to a survey by the Yomiuri, Mr. Aso has a firm probability of receiving more than 300 votes to become party president.

"Matt has a bat" seems a lot easier to me!

1000 Gifts, Vol. 2, #22

211. being serenaded across the ocean with, "How marvelous! How wonderful!"
212. the smell of granola baking
213. a photo of my mom's childhood home, looking much nicer than the last time I saw it
214. memories of staying there on summer family vacations
215. the random friendship my mom began in the aisle of Wal-mart and which led to the once-stranger sending the photo after she visited my mom's hometown
216. He took my sins and my sorrows and made them His very own
217. the pleasure I find in reading a map and playing "match the kanji"
218. the smile and excited look in the eyes of a certain 3-year old whenever he greets anyone
219. narrowly avoiding being stuck in a 70-minute traffic jam on Monday
220. attending morning devotions at the bilingual Christian school

Refrigerator Pizza

The latest Pizza La advertisement tells me that I can order four cheese pizza, shrimp and mayonnaise pizza, and several others, including the all-time favorite of Japanese pizza parlors - tuna, mayonnaise and corn.

Tonight I combined my acquired-in-Japan pizza taste and my Hokkaido cooking lessons to make refrigerator pizza. I opened my refrigerator, and whatever I could find became a topping!

The final product: spinach-chicken-green pepper-onion pizza!

The final analysis: tasty!

What pizza toppings have you tried?

Back to Africa

Here's one more in my ongoing series where I vicariously move between cultures through the writing of others. This time a family moves from one African country to another, with a year in the USA in between.

http://planetnomad.wordpress.com/2008/09/11/shopping-continued/

Foot-Dish-Washing

Breakfast guests Wednesday...

a meeting over breakfast...

hurrying out the door to the next event...

but wait...

one guest insisted on washing the dishes...

saying she didn't want the dirty dishes to still be waiting for me on Friday...

she knows me too well.

Coming home to these clean dishes Wednesday afternoon was a HUGE relief!

1000 Gifts, Vol. 2, #21

201. laundry swaying back and forth in the breeze
202. the accomplishment of a little bit more purging in the hidden spaces in closets and drawers
203. spur-of-the-moment hospitality (both inviting & being invited)
204. My hope is built on nothing less than Jesus' blood & righteousness.
205. experimenting with pizza toppings
206. a fridge stocked with fresh veggie sticks, ready to eat
207. a friend's testimony of evidence of God at work in a small way, years after she began praying
208. giveaway piles on Wednesdays
209. finding an important document, and in the process finding a ticket and a bill I'd misplaced without knowing it
210. being wholly accepted in the Beloved

A matter of scale

The other day I needed to weigh an envelope that would require more than a 42 cent stamp when the people carrying it back to the States dropped it in a mailbox.

So I pulled out my handy-dandy hand-held scale, purchased in 1994 for $5 at the old Kingsport post office, a purchase that was well worth it.

It weighs up to 4 ounces. The envelope weighed more.

Going to the hall closet, I pulled out my other handy-dandy hand-held scale. It weighs up to 75 pounds, but is hard to read below one pound.

Both are helpful in their own way, depending on whether one is mailing letters or checking in luggage for a flight.

I just need to remember not to weigh anything between 4 ounces and one pound.

10 things to look forward to in America

Click here to read one family's list.

My list would overlap with theirs in the following areas:

• family & friends,
• public library (oh! the anticipation!),
• being able to try something on to make sure it fits before purchase,
• community, and
  
• & celebrating American holidays and traditions.

1000 Gifts, Vol. 2, #20

191. setting the table for a meal
192. eating a sit-down breakfast
193. a few days of ABSOLUTELY GORGEOUS FALL WEATHER!
194. adding more references to my list of verses about forgiveness
195. margin to plan ahead and cook today's lunch last night
196. bright faces in student photos posted in the new kindergarten's classroom
197. being on a team - opportunities to flex, serve, and be served
198. the seasons God brings - each for an appointed (even if hidden) purpose
199. cloth napkins
200. my rock and my redeemer

Being and Doing

"Mission is all about going, not a lot about doing and everything about being" (unknown). The strange thing seems to be that the more we focus on the "being" and the less we focus on the "doing", the more we see God at work around us.

~My Seventh Monsoon, Naomi Reed

My task-oriented nature has been extra visible in recent days. Reading this on my day off was timely.

1000 Gifts, Vol. 2, #19

181. the gift of a CD with songs I hadn't heard in a long time (e.g, "Over the Sunset Mountains")
182. the peacefulness of walking in a drizzly rain at the end of the day
183. the God-ordained rhythm of six days work and one day rest
184. two little girls' excitement in relating new discoveries about God's world
185. a true day off
186. all-in-one printer so I don't have to go out to 7-11 late at night to make copies
187. the first signature in my guest book!
188. the fact that someone else is visiting all the different government offices on my behalf (to transfer a car)
189. Wednesday Team Day - interacting with many of "my kids"
190. a new recipe (crustless quiche)

Re-entry

For all you who have ever re-entered, or will re-enter, or can't understand your friends or family who re-enter, here is one lady's perspective as she processes re-entering America:

http://kwegesiya.blogspot.com/2008/08/compartmentalization.html

Or click here.

Recovery

Last week:

• 8-hour trip to Tokyo on my day off to meet with a publisher's visiting representative
• Two back-to-back three-day conferences, both held locally. Although I came home each night, three others came home with me also to lodge here during the first one. The second conference, an intense one, was squeezed into afternoons, preceded by full mornings of regular activities.

Both conferences were filled with many good things.

The fact that today is my day off is also a good thing. A very good thing!

I lay down and slept;
I woke again, for the LORD sustained me.

Our Tempted Brother

Today's quote at First Importance:

“As a tempted brother, he feels for us; as a sinless brother he can save us.”

- Sinclair Ferguson, Children of the Living God (Carlisle, PA: The Banner of Truth Trust, 1989), 35.

ジュディス

While wearing my small group conference nametag around my neck the other day, I leaned down to help one of "my kids" put her shoes on.

"What's that?"

"It's my nametag."

And as if to say, "You can't get away with teasing me!" the reply came, "You don't have a Japanese name!"

Letter recognition ... most children only have to learn to recognize the 26 letters of the alphabet. She is learning that some letters are English, and others are Japanese.

1000 Gifts, Vol. 2, #18

171. loaning well-loved books to friends!
172. receiving a new book from the swap table at a team meeting!
173. my air conditioner's "dry" setting, reducing the humidity in my apartment
174. being the recipient of an almost full can of my favorite loose tea, when a friend cleaned out her kitchen to return to the U.S.
175. "family time" as a team on our first night of Pray & Plan retreat
176. ginger citrus throat drops
177. the sound of voices of seven small groups praying in the same room
178. lots of fresh vegetables to munch on!
179. reunions after all the summer vacations are over
180. a convenient plastic clipboard that has come in really handy during two back-to-back three-day conferences

Deserted Island

"If you were stranded on a deserted island, and could have any two items in the world, what would they be?" Thus began our "getting-to-know-you-better" time.

Assuming that life-sustaining food and water were already on the island. what would your answer be?

I would request:

• a solar-powered Kindle or other electronic reader, fully loaded with all the books I'd want to read, and
• a solar-powered iPod loaded with all the music I'd want to listen to, pictures of family and friends, and the capability to continue receiving podcasts.

We noticed that our group's answers (ranging from an air-conditioned room to the Library of Congress) identified which people value information and which people value comfort.

I maintain that for some of us, information is comfort. ☺

I Am Who I Am, Part 2 - "A Treasure"

After purchasing from the city office the document that proves that my seal really is my seal, I realized I didn't have my seal! Where could it be?!?

Thankfully I remembered that before going away, I had left it with a co-worker because there was a possibility she would need to stamp it on some government forms while I was away. I quickly e-mailed her to ask if she could bring it to me the next time we saw each other.

She replied, "It was in our treasure box; I'd totally forgotten about it."

If I owned any assets, it would have given her authority to sell them all. Hopefully most of my assets are the type that can't be sold.

but lay up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where neither moth nor rust destroys and where thieves do not break in and steal.

Pardon me?

I ate lunch in a tall building across from Tokyo Station. Seated near me were two groups of six businesspeople. One group was discussing an upcoming court case and how best to represent their client. They were speaking completely in English! The other group had two foreigners in it.

I felt very disoriented to hear English and see foreigners whom I don't know.

Later, as I rode down the elevator in a community hall in another part of Tokyo, a man entering the elevator said in English, "Sorry." When the elevator reached the first floor, he held back and said, again in English, "After you."

I felt even more disoriented.

1000 Gifts, Vol. 2, #17

161. refreshing taste of Mint Julep Soda
162. watching the thin sliver of the moon become invisible and then visible again as clouds passed in front of it
163. driving the length of a road lined with crepe myrtle in full bloom
164. the variety of soft drinks and bottled teas in Japan
165. new opportunities to practice forgiveness & to feel in my body a small reminder of what it cost my Lord to forgive me
166. friends that "weep with those who weep"
167. a load of tumble-dried sheets and towels folded and stacked neatly
168. the relief of finishing the laundry in one visit to the "coin laundry" instead of coaxing a sheet or two to dry every day or two over the next week
169. a wonderful closing message at the conference, reminding us all anew of the wonder of God's grace
170. seeing God's power in bringing healing to someone who was suffering from a debilitating depression

1000 Gifts, Vol. 2, #16

151. tall grass covered with droplets of water shining in the early morning sun by the pond
152. sunlight filtering through the trees on the top of the hill at the park
153. masks to wear while vacuuming
154. 7 filters in my vacuum cleaner
155. a mid-afternoon nap in the midst of an intense conference
156. the upcoming end of the tropical summer (hopefully)
157. sharing my apartment with 3 university students during the conference
158. popping into the school on the first day to see some of "my kids"
159. the acceptance, laughter, and honesty of young children
160. sharing in a friend's life by riding the commuter trains home with her on Monday night

Upward look & trustful silence

I've been reading in a devotional I picked up at the Christian bookstore in Tokyo.

The time of tragedy is not a time for speaking about the ultimate problems of the universe. It is time for the upward look and trustful silence. ... The best I can do in times of trouble and tragedy is to demonstrate mute obedience.

As Uncle Martin would say, "Keep looking up!"

What I know

The newspaper delivery man has faithfully placed the newspaper in my mail slot every morning this week. And I have faithfully read the front-page headlines:

Hurricane Gustav heads for U.S.
Fukuda steps down
LDP election on Sept. 22

I have faithfully read the front-page headlines. And. nothing. more.

Monday night I happened to be in the car at just the right time to hear 5 minutes of Palin's speech.

Other than that, if there is anything going on in the world right now, I am completely unaware of it.

• I know that 50 pastors and lay leaders are soaking up a 3-day conference on small groups.
• I know that I, too, am learning much.
• I know that several ladies from the church worked very hard to prepare a delicious eel and rice dish for dinner for all the attendees last night, and that my teammates are working very hard to prepare hot breakfasts and all the other meals.
• I know that one pastor must be very tired from translating every session by the minister from New York.
• I know that I'm enjoying getting to know the three university students whose conference lodgings are in my apartment.
• I know that, as I speak, the attendees are sitting in on their choice of eight different small groups from our church, which were re-scheduled in order to meet on this day.
• I know that for many it may be the first small group Bible study they have ever seen.
• I know that we are praying that the Japanese Church would be characterized more and more by small groups and less reliance on the pastor to do 100% of the teaching and leading and caring in the congregation.

And I know that I will enjoy a nap for the next two hours!

Gustav

My hairdresser asked why Americans name their hurricanes. Japanese call them "Typhoon #1," "Typhoon #2," and so on.

She already had her own answer: "Americans must be very aware that the hurricanes have a spirit."

The belief in yaoyarazu no kamisama - eight million gods - is not something that is uncommon.

A well-educated, world-traveling lady I met recently repeatedly told me that the trees in her yard protect her and she thanks them every morning.

It's a small world

I sat in a Starbucks in an upscale section of Tokyo, across the table from a visiting American, discussing his business, which is preparing license agreements for publication and distribution of Christian English books in foreign languages.

My co-worker and I listened and learned, asked questions and shared our vision. The three of us dreamed about how God could use the printed word - or the digital word - in His mission here, and what specific roles we can play.

When discussing where in the world we might run into each other next, he asked where I am from. "Oh, where in Tennessee?"

He has flown into Tri-Cities Airport many times, with his former job, to visit Moody Aviation, and has ridden on their planes landing on their short mock-jungle airstrips which they practiced on, scattered around the Appalachians.

And in another of his former jobs, he worked closely with my brother-in-law's employer, also in East Tennessee.

After this mixing of Tokyo and Tri-Cities, it was only appropriate that I rode the train past the lit-up Tokyo Disneyland tonight on my way home. "It's a small world..."

Back to School

New teachers, new students, and new first-graders are experiencing their first day of school at CCSI today. Students who left this summer for a year or two in the USA, and a recent graduate starting college this week in the USA, will be missed more than words can say in this closeknit school of 20-30 students.

Around the world, this story is repeating itself. I personally am aware of high-school aged missionary children on two continents who started boarding school this fall, and others who are transitioning this fall from homeschool to a traditional classroom.

As I write, some of "my children" are starting their first day of kindergarten in a one-year bilingual pilot program. Where will the next twelve years find them? What types of schools? Which countries?

I do not know the future. But I know that there is One who cares for them infinitely more than their own parents do. And He is faithful.

Multiplication ... years later

A friend urged me to start a Bible study for two young ladies who had recently believed. With much fear and trepidation, I launched my first Japanese Bible study. And I began attending the church's small group leaders' meetings, where I heard every month that our prayer goal is for the small groups to multiply and for new Bible study leaders to be raised up from within our small groups.

Fast forward seven years. Today I received an e-mail from one of those original Bible study members who has since moved to the States. She excitedly reported that she had met some Japanese girls and was able to share what God has been doing in her life.

At her suggestion, they plan to begin a Bible study in September. My friend is excited to lead her first Bible study with non-Christians!

And so I'm encouraged to pray more faithfully that T and S and K and A (and others in Bible study now) will become Bible study leaders themselves some day (or year) in the future!